Judge Hurson says DHS's planned conversion of a Maryland warehouse into an immigration detention facility ignored some basic environmental impacts — like how adding 100s of people to a place that currently has 4 toilets might impact the sewer system storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Searing opinion from a federal judge on Long Island, who describes "police state"-like tactics by ICE to arrest peopleand draw up after-the-fact warrants.
He says DOJ is damaging its credibility with the courts by trying to shield ICE from scrutiny. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
These people have served their criminal sentences. The Trump administation has been re-detaining them and claiming to have restarted or reinvigorated deportation efforts, but courts have routinely found this to be predicated on "hope" rather than concrete progress. www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
At issue are hundreds of cases in which people have been ordered deported — sometimes after serious criminal offenses ranging form murder to rape to drug trafficking, but whose home countries won't accept them, or who have won protections from torture/persecution. www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
The furor over ICE's mass detention efforts has focused on people with longstanding roots in the US and no criminal records.
But judges say ICE has also been routinely – and illegally — locking up people *with* final orders of removal. www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
UPDATE: The Trump administration is deporting "nonviolent medically impaired grandparents" to Laos over a 33-year-old drug conviction, a decision Judge Tana Lin says is "inhumane" and "cruel" — but says she is powerless to stop.
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A federal judge in Illinois today ruled that the Trump administration improperly coerced Facebook and Apple to remove ICE-tracking apps in violation of the First Amendment. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
NEW: Rumeysa OZTURK — once detained by the Trump admin over a pro-Palestine op-ed — has opted to depart for Turkiye after completing her PhD studies at Tufts, ending her year-long legal battle.
w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social
www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
JUST IN: Judge McElroy, a Trump appointee, continues DOJ’s unbroken losing streak in efforts to obtain state voter rolls. She calls it a “fishing expedition.” storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Eastman’s disbarment was immediately condemned by other Trump 2020 allies like Sidney Powell and Jeff Clark.
But one of the key witnesses against Eastman at his bar trial hailed the ruling as “a just end to a story of injustice.” www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
NEW: Eastman helped devise the strategy to pressure Mike Pence to halt Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory — and he memorably fought with Pence’s aides even as the Capitol was in lockdown on Jan. 6.
www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
JUST IN: John Eastman, the conservative attorney who helped devise President Trump's last ditch strategy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, has officially been disbarred, per the California Supreme Court:
Judge Stearns orders a bond hearing for a high school senior in Massachusetts whose parents served as translators for the US military in Afghanistan. He was detained last week, despite having valid parole status through Oct. 2026, and has no criminal record, Stearns indicates.
The fine is mostly symbolic, but the reasons the DOJ attorney gave for the violations has become a familiar refrain: He's been assigned a crushing volume of immigration detention cases and can't keep up with the dozens of daily filings they require. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
A federal judge slapped a $250 fine on a DOJ attorney for repeatedly missing deadlines in habeas cases.
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The move by DOJ would wipe away prosecutors' most hard-fought convictions in the years that followed the Jan. 6 riot, erasing legal consequences for the people DOJ once said were most responsible for the chaos and violence that unfolded. www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
All of the men had their sentences commuted — but not pardoned — by Donald Trump last year and continued to appeal their cases. But with key deadlines coming up, DOJ said it was not "in the interests of justice" to continue fighting the appeal. www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
NEW: The Justice Department has moved to erase the seditious conspiracy convictions of the key Oath Keepers and Proud Boys leaders who played central roles in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — including Stewart Rhodes, Ethan Nordean, Joe Biggs, etc.
www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
NOTABLE: Judge Walker swiped broadly at the media but also praised Boasberg as "widely respected." Judge Childs warned, in an 80-page dissent, that the court was doing grave damage to its own authority.
www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
NEW: The 2-1 majority ruled that Boasberg's orders to block deportations to CECOT were too ambiguous — and his subsequent inquiry too invasive — to allow the contempt proceedings to continue.
Majority: Rao (Trump), Walker (Trump)
Dissent: Childs (Biden)
www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
JUST IN: A bitterly divided appeals court panel has, for a second time, blocked Judge Boasberg's effort to pursue potential criminal contempt against Kristi Noem and other DHS officials for their handling of rushed deportations to El Salvador last year.
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JUST IN: Judge Friedman gives the Pentagon a 14-day reprieve to appeal his ruling lifting the physical access restrictions to the Pentagon. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...
NEW: Trump's claim the WSJ published the Epstein birthday note with "actual malice" was completely undermined by the article itself, which showed the paper's due diligence and included Trump's objection in the story.
w/ @joshgerstein.bsky.social
www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
Judge Nichols agrees that the Trump administraiton appears to have fast-tracked Somali deportation proceedings — by years in some cases — but that the law firm and nonprofit challenging it likely lack standing. ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...
JUST IN: Judge Friedman has rejected the Pentagon’s revised press policy, saying it flouted his earlier order and represents a bid by Hegseth and the Trump admin to “dictate” coverage, what he calls “the mark of an autocracy, not a democracy.” ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...
NEW: Inside the factional jockeying for influence and control of Trump’s DOJ.
-The Dhillon-Warrington alliance
-Blanche’s unique standing w/ Trump
-The uncertain fate of Stanley Woodward
w/ @myahward.bsky.social @joshgerstein.bsky.social
www.politico.com/news/2026/04...
JUST IN: Judge Murphy has postponed the termination of temporary protected status for Ethiopians living in the United States, saying the Trump administration violated the process for revoking it. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
A federal judge in Vermont has ordered the restoration of Harvard researcher Kseniia Petrova's visa, finding it was revoked by a CBP officer without lawful authority. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
It appears official that Pam Bondi is no longer on the job. DOJ just scheduled a press conference with "Acting AG Todd Blanche," confirming the transition has taken place.
The Trump administration says it's not illegal to call the Kennedy Center the "Trump Kennedy Center" because it is only a "secondary name," like the "Department of War" or "Fannie Mae."
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